May 10.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 911

The state of contractors’ camps, where they exist, and the provision of latrines, and the scavenging thereof, and the water-supply available to them, is of greatest importance to the community in general.

5. Factories and workshops should be specially examined in detail as to water-supplies, privy-accommodation, crowding, and ventilation. Faults should be forthwith amended, and recurrence avoided by regular and effective inspection.

6. All public closets, latrines, and urinals should be kept in perfect order, and daily cleansed and disinfected.

7. All cesspits should be forthwith emptied and thoroughly disinfected; they should be abolished wherever possible, and elsewhere served with a disinfectant at least once in fourteen days.

8. All sewers, drains, gutters, and yard-gullies should be frequently and regularly flushed or swept down, and subsequently disinfected; the immediate repair of broken drains and faulty gullies should be insisted upon, and the fouled soil around them removed and disinfected.

9. All those localities which are known to have been visited by typhoid fever in the past should be objects of the first and greatest care.

10. Every Local Board of Health should, where necessary, select an available site for a Plague Hospital to be erected in some suitable locality. The building should be of such a nature that it could be destroyed by fire when no longer required.

11. Cases of plague reported to a Board should be at once isolated, and, subject to the terms of section 30 of “The Public Health Act, 1876,” conveyed to the Plague Hospital, and the other inmates of the dwelling or premises in which such cases occur should be kept under observation.

12. The attention of Local Boards is directed to their powers under section 29 of the above Act as regards the destruction of bedding, clothing, or other articles which have been exposed to infection.

13. In the event of death from plague, it is highly desirable that, where legally permissible, arrangements should be made for the cremation of the bodies.

14. The sections of “The Public Health Act, 1876” (from 27 to 40, inclusive), which relate to infectious diseases and hospitals are hereto attached, and printed copies can be supplied to Local Boards of Health, who should take such steps as may be deemed expedient to make public such of these provisions as affect particular persons or classes of the community.

II. GENERAL DIRECTIONS AS REGARDS THOSE AFFLICTED WITH DANGEROUS CONTAGIOUS OR INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

1. When anybody, especially a child or young person, has the ordinary symptoms of fever, he should be kept separated from all other persons, except necessary attendants, until it be ascertained whether it is a case of some communicable disease.

2. Every case of dangerous infectious or contagious disease should be at once reported to the Health Officer appointed by the Local Board of Health.

By section 28 of “The Public Health Act, 1876,” every householder in whose house a person is sick of any highly infectious disease dangerous to the people is bound (under a penalty) to give notice of the fact to the Local Board of Health of the district in which he dwells.

3. On receipt of such notices, the Local Health Officer should immediately verify the reports of cases. If medical attendant reports the case this will be sufficient verification. Under the Public Health Act of 1893 it is the duty of the medical practitioner in attendance on any case of infectious disease dangerous to the people to give notice, in the form prescribed, to the Local Board of Health of the district.

4. The Local Board should—

Secure isolation of those sick with or exposed to such diseases;

Give notice of infected places;

Regulate funerals of persons dead from infectious diseases;

Disinfect rooms, clothing, and premises;

Give certificates of recovery, and of freedom from liability to communicate the disease.

5. Every person known to be sick with a dangerous infectious disease should be promptly and effectively isolated from the public; no more persons than are necessary should have access to the patient, and they should be restricted in their intercourse with other persons.

6. Notices should be placed on the house in which such a case exists, and no unnecessary persons allowed to enter.

Conduct of Sick-room and Attendants.

7. The bedroom of a person sick with plague, or any other dangerous infectious disease, should be cleared of all needless clothing, carpets, drapery, or any material liable to harbour the poison of the disease. The room should have a liberal supply of fresh air—at least 2,000 cubic feet per head per hour. In summer the supply should be unlimited; windows thrown open, and draughts on patients prevented by screens, slanting from open point of sash to within 2 in. of ceiling.

8. Discharges from throat, nose, and mouth should be received or immediately placed in vessels containing some approved disinfectant; where rags or handkerchiefs are used they should be immediately burned.

Likewise, the discharges from kidneys and bowels should be passed into vessels containing a pint of disinfectant, and immediately buried at least a hundred feet from any well or other drinking-water supply. If these precautions are impracticable, let the excreta be passed on old clothes, which should immediately be burned.

9. Purification of Clothes and Bedding.—The best plan is by the agency of heat, where it can be effectively applied. Boiling clothes is not so good as baking in a suitable oven, but still useful. The clothes may be laid for twenty-four hours in a suitable disinfectant solution.

10. Nurses and attendants should be required to keep themselves and their patients as clean as possible by frequent disinfection.

Attendants should also wear cotton or linen (not woollen) clothes or overalls, because particles will not so readily adhere to them, and they may be more easily disinfected.

11. The body of a person who has died of dangerous infectious disease should be washed with a strong disinfectant solution, and wrapped in a sheet wet with the same, and at once buried.

In no case should the body be exposed to view; no public funeral held, and as few attend as possible.

Disinfection of Dwellings and Premises after Recovery or Death.

12. In addition to thorough cleansing of all woodwork with soft-soap and water, to which carbolic acid has been added in proper proportions, and to removing and purifying all fabrics which can be removed in the manner described in section 9, and brushing the walls, the rooms should be fumigated for a period varying from three to twenty-four hours with sulphurous acid. All doors and windows and the chimney being tightly closed, and all fabrics to be purified taken away, sulphur is put into a metallic dish, a little saltpetre put on the top or mixed with it, and then lighted. The proportions should be 2 lb. of sulphur for every 1,000 cubic feet of space. In a very long room it is best to have the sulphur in two or more places.

After the fumigation is completed the doors and windows should be opened, and kept open for several hours.

In disinfecting in this manner with sulphurous acid the person setting light to the saltpetre and sulphur must make a precipitate escape from the room the instant the sulphur is burning.

Carpets may be fumigated by this method, and afterwards removed to the open air and thoroughly beaten. Pillows, feather beds, mattresses, and upholstered furniture, after being disinfected on the outside, should be cut open and their contents exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur.

In no case should the disinfection of clothing and bedding be omitted. Where articles of clothing, towels, or anything used by sick persons are considered too valueless to be kept, they must not be burned in the house or open air before they have been completely disinfected.

Precautions for avoiding Infectious or Contagious Disease.

13. Avoid exposure to special contagion of the disease. More danger for children than for adults: do not, therefore, let a child go near a case.

Do not permit any thing or person, or any dog, cat, or other animal to come direct from a case of infectious disease to a child, unless previously disinfected under competent supervision.

If you do visit a case, bathe yourself, especially hands, face, and hair, in a disinfectant solution, and change and disinfect your clothing, before you go where there is a child. See that your residence, premises, &c., are kept clean and dry; that the sewer-connections are well trapped and drains well ventilated.

Never allow passages from persons sick with the disease to be placed in water-closets or privies, but have them attended to as in section 8.

Give special attention to purity of milk-supply.

Do not allow a child to ride in any vehicle where there is suspicion of infected persons having travelled.

Avoid exposure to wind and cold.

Do not wear or handle clothing worn by a person during sickness or convalescence from these diseases.

Beware of any person who has a sore throat or running at nose. Do not kiss or take the breath of such a person.

Do not drink from the same cup or put pen in your mouth.

14. In the case of infectious or contagious disease remember that the contagion may be stored up from one season to another, if not destroyed. Do not let it be so stored, and see that your children do not visit a house where one of

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